The city's area of monuments
is to be found around the Plaza Mayor. The Santa Maria cathedral,
destroyed in the Civil War of 1936 and later rebuilt, has preserved
its three original Gothic doorways, dating from 1382 to 1435, the
finest era of Valencia Gothic architecture. Nearby, the octagonal
Torre del Fadri has always been a symbol of Castellon. It acts as
the city's bell tower, though it is a secular building. The Provincial
Museum, installed in an eighteenth-century house and inaugurated in
1980 when collections from two previous museums were brought together,
exhibits valuable examples of Iberian art, a large collection of ceramics
from Alcora, Onda and Manises, a good collection of paintings by Jose
Ribera, Teniers and Sorolla, and sculptures by Benlliure.
On the Playa del Pinar, to the north of Grao, the Planetarium has
two telescopes for observing the heavens. It has a 25-metre dome,
and several rooms for exhibitions and cultural activities. It houses
a sample of the great biological variety that exists in the Columbretes
islands. |